Men's Tennis Close to Pulling Upset Over No. 4 UGA

March 25, 2012, 08:32 PM (CT)
Updated: March 25, 2012, 08:37 PM (CT)

LSU's Roger Anderson and Neal Skupski

Chris Parent (@chrisparent)

Ashley Amoss

BATON ROUGE -- The No. 26 LSU men's tennis team had a record home crowd on their side Sunday, but ultimately could not pull off the upset, falling 4-3 to the No. 4 Georgia Bulldogs at W. T. Dub Robinson Stadium.

The Tigers (11-7, SEC 2-4) came up just shy of taking the doubles point before defeating the top three players in singles. However, in the end, it was not quite enough to push the Tigers past the Bulldogs.

"Considering the situation we are in with being two guys down with Bowtell being out and Turbervill being out today, it was a pretty phenomenal effort," head coach Jeff Brown said. "I think it just shows the guys what they really can do when they dial in. I don't even think we dialed in on every court. We definitely left some points out there, but we fought hard and beat the No. 4 team in the nation on courts one, two and three."

In doubles, LSU's Olivier Borsos and Chris Simpson met defeat at the hands of Georgia's 31st-ranked Ignacio Taboada and Hernus Pieters on the top court.

On both courts two and three, the doubles matches stayed tight with both going into tiebreakers. The Tigers could not finish off their respective opponents, giving up both matches and the doubles point.

In singles, the Tigers came out fighting, taking down three ranked players on the top three courts.

No. 85 Neal Skupski was the first Tiger to take down his ranked opponent, defeating Georgia's No. 50 KU Singh in straight sets.

No. 71 Borsos claimed the biggest upset of the afternoon, eliminating the 8th-ranked player in the nation, Wil Spencer, with a 7-5, 6-4, victory, giving the Tigers a chance at the match.

With the match on the line, it all came down to David Roberts who was only making his third appearance of the season due to James Turbervill being out. Roberts took Georgia's 70th-ranked Pieters all the way to a third set, where he came up just short and suffered a painful 6-2, 5-7, 6-3 loss.

"You can't say enough about David Roberts and how he came in, stepped up and played today," Brown said. "He fought hard and took a guy who has been ranked in the top-50 to a final third set. I am very proud of how he played."

Simpson also took 20th-ranked Sadio Doumbia all the way to a final set and was on the verge of winning when Doumbia retired the match, finalizing the score in favor of the Bulldogs, 4-3.

After a tough weekend, the Tigers will take a day off and return to game action on Friday when they take on Mississippi State in Starkville, Miss., at 2 p.m. CT.

Be sure to follow @lsutennis on Twitter and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/lsutennis for updates on the Tigers and match play.